Johannsburg - President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has had a tough week from former comrades, writes Patrick Laurence. For three successive days, starting last Sunday, Mr Mugabe had to endure the humiliation of attacks by war veterans, who played a pivotal role in defeating the white-controlled government and bringing him to power in 1980.
Former nationalist guerrillas demonstrated in the streets of Harare. Their disenchantment was as unmistakable as it was ominous for the ruling Zanu-PF, whose governance has become identified with corruption and nepotism in the minds of a growing number of Zimbabweans. They forced three cabinet ministers to flee from a public meeting under police protection and without their limousines.
They next marched on Mr Mugabe's office chanting hondo, hondo ("war, war"); finally, more than a hundred former combatants broke through a police cordon at the prestigious Harare International Conference Centre to air their grievances - to Mr Mugabe's embarrassment - before 1,000 delegates at the biennial African-American summit. The immediate cause was the cessation of payments to veterans from the War Victims' Compensation Fund after press disclosures that the account had been plundered by members of the Zanu-PF elite, whose contribution to the armed struggle was minimal but who are able to pursue high-profile careers.